Academy for Peace Education (APE) Steering Committee & Trainers
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Dr. Jason Del Gandio
Director, Academy for Peace Education
Temple University
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Nick Cooney
Humane League of Philadelphia
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Dr. Anthony J. Nocella II
Hamline University
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Dara Lovitz, JD
Temple University Beasley School of Law
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Nick Cooney author of Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change (Lantern Books 2010) is the founder and director of The Humane League, an animal advocacy organization based in Philadelphia, PA that focuses on farm animal protection issues. Nick has written for publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer and Z Magazine, and his advocacy work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio. He holds a degree in Non-Violence Studies from Hofstra University and formerly worked conducting nutrition education programs with the University of Pennsylvania’s Urban Nutrition Initiative.
Jason Del Gandio is a public intellectual dedicated to social justice. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Public Communication at Temple University specializing in rhetoric, the philosophy of communication and language, critical analysis, and radical social and political theory. He participated in the global justice movement in the early 2000s, and went on to fair trade activism, Latin American solidarity, and anti-war activism. These experiences led Jason to write Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists (New Society Press, 2008), which received the Gold Award by the Independent Publishers Industry in the social activism category. Some of his other writings can be viewed online at Truthout.org, Dissident Voice, the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Re-Public, Metaphilm, ephemera, Liminalities, and Cultural Logic. He is now working on his next book, which focuses on the political relationship between desire and reality. He also offers workshops for activists on communication, rhetoric, and philosophy. More information can be found at www.jasondelgandio.com
Dara Lovitz, Esquire, is an Adjunct Professor of Animal Law at both Temple University Beasley School of Law and Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law. She has written and lectured extensively on a variety of topics including eco-terrorism, animal law, environmental law, and civil liberties. Lovitz is the author of Muzzling a Movement: The Effects of Anti-Terrorism Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism (Lantern Books 2010) and most notably the 2007 Michigan State University Law journal article, Animal Lovers and Tree Huggers are the New Cold-Blooded Criminals? Examining the Flaws of Ecoterrorism Bills, along with many other articles . She received the designation of “Rising Star” by the Super Lawyers Magazine. Lovitz is a founding board member of Peace Advocacy Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting veganism, social justice, and respect for the Earth. She earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law, at which she was the recipient of both the Law Faculty Scholarship and the Barrister Award. She was selected by her classmates to be the class speaker at Temple’s graduation ceremony. Lovitz was appointed Special Prosecutor by the Lancaster County District Attorney to prosecute the pivotal Pennsylvania case, Commonwealth v. Esbenshade, in which the Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania district court determined the criminal liability of a battery-cage egg production facility owner and supervisor under Pennsylvania’s animal cruelty statute. Lovitz focuses her pro-bono practice in advising and serving as counsel for various non-profit animal advocacy organizations. Lovitz is a board member of Four Feet Forward, an organization that helps grass-roots animal advocacy organizations with their legal and media campaigns by offering professional services at no cost.
Anthony J. Nocella II, author, poet, activist, and educator, while finishing his Ph.D. at Syracuse University, teaches Criminology, Education, and Sociology at Le Moyne College and SUNY Cortland. He holds a M.A. in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies and a graduate certificate in mediation from Fresno Pacific University. He was involved with peacemaking in Colombia with Mennonite Central Committee and Christian Peacemaker Teams. He has provided conflict transformation workshops and classes to NGOs, ROTC, U.S. military, law enforcement, public safety, also in prisons, juvenile halls, and middle and high schools with Alternative to Violence Program, Save the Kids, and Help Increase the Peace Program (AFSC). His activism, which has led him to be a lobbyist, assistant to a Texas State Representative, and arrested for numerous acts of civil disobedience, stretches through many social causes including youth advocacy, alternatives to incarceration, ending racism and poverty, Native American rights, LGBTQ rights, animal rights, anarchism and international human rights. He is the co-founder of more than 20 political. He is on more than a dozen NGO board of directors including Save the Kids and American Friends Service Committee. Nocella has written in more than two dozen publications, co-founded more than ten active socio-political organizations, four academic journals, and is working on his eleventh book.
